PeerCentered

It is the week before finals week at MSU, and that means it's wrap up time for the semester for the university and the writing center as well. That doesn't mean that there won't be summer classes, and we won't still provide consulting during the summer. But, it has a different, more relaxed feeling and I'm curious about what consulting will be like in the summer. I'm sure that traffic will be slower, but will consulting be different? Do any of you have experience with "slower traffic seasons" in the writing center? If so, please share.

I've been thinking a lot about Mary's last post. Ultimately I have to disagree with her because I have and rank advancement though the Writing Center. It is my carreer and my schools seems dedicated to making the position viable. I suppose some schools are not committed to that. Ultimately this is the argument that WC director's posistions should always be faculty positions. I should think, however, that such a person should be hired as WC specialists and be treated fairly in tenure reviews. I know that has not happened in the past for some folks, despite their publishing record etc. I've never seen the WC as a safe haven. On the other had I see it as a somewhat radical place where new ideas about education can be bandied about.

>While I was reading this I suddenly had the (I would say sad) thought that despite all of any WC director's work, people who work there are probably not going to have the commitment level that she or he has since, ultimately, many folks don't work in writing centers as a carreer. It is for them, perhaps, just a weigh station. It is something to do before you get you finish up your work and move on to the real job.< I'm new to PeerCentered, so I thought I'd begin by responding to this post. My title is English Instructional Skills Specialist for the English Learning Center at Palo Alto College, a position I've held for five years. Yes, that's right, five years. Awfully long time to pause at a "weigh station," don't you think? I honestly didn't come into this job on my way to something else. I came into this job on my way OUT of something else. I taught high school for three years before I came to the community college. At t

We had a great training session yesterday. My impression of involvement is assuaged I think.

I made a vow awhile back to not write about the lack of participation here from peer writing tutors despite my efforts to draw folks in. I have to break that now because I've been bothered recently by, for want of better terms, the dedication to WC work by folks who work in writing centers. I guess these thoughts started when I was reading WCENTER and a conversation about methods to get peer tutors to fill out appropriate (and I would argue essential) report forms. It would seem that some peer tutors were "too busy" with their own school work to take the time to fill out the forms that notify instructors of what went on in an individual session. The WCENTER conversation then turned towards general commitment levels of WC folks (and in particular graduate students). Chris LeCluyse from UT Austin writes The thornier issue is how graduate students see themselves in the center, and how they relate the work they do there to their own studies and professional goals.